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Competency building for lay health workers is an intangible force driving basic public health services in Southwest China

BACKGROUND: Providing universal basic public health services (BPHS) for residents is the main goal of the new health reform in China. Lay health workers (LHWs) in primary health care (PHC) sectors play key roles in BPHS delivery. The competency of LHWs is critical to quality BPHS. This study assesse...

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Autores principales: Liang, Shengxiang, Deng, Haoyue, Liu, Shili, Wang, Geng, Li, Li, Wang, Mei, Pu, Jie, Xing, Wei, Luo, Xingneng, Ehiri, John, Xiang, Yueying, Li, Ying
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6708187/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31443648
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4433-2
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author Liang, Shengxiang
Deng, Haoyue
Liu, Shili
Wang, Geng
Li, Li
Wang, Mei
Pu, Jie
Xing, Wei
Luo, Xingneng
Ehiri, John
Xiang, Yueying
Li, Ying
author_facet Liang, Shengxiang
Deng, Haoyue
Liu, Shili
Wang, Geng
Li, Li
Wang, Mei
Pu, Jie
Xing, Wei
Luo, Xingneng
Ehiri, John
Xiang, Yueying
Li, Ying
author_sort Liang, Shengxiang
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Providing universal basic public health services (BPHS) for residents is the main goal of the new health reform in China. Lay health workers (LHWs) in primary health care (PHC) sectors play key roles in BPHS delivery. The competency of LHWs is critical to quality BPHS. This study assessed LHWs’ competency to deliver BPHS and related training in resource-limited Southwest China. METHODS: A mixed research method combining in-depth interviews with secondary data collection was used to collect data in this cross-sectional study. Fifty-four LHWs and 16 leaders in 16 PHC sectors were recruited for in-depth interviews. Secondary data on 198 LHWs were collected through standard forms. RESULTS: Both the interviews and secondary data suggested that all PHC sectors did not have sufficient LHWs and lacked qualified LHWs to deliver BPHS overall, particularly in relatively low economic rural areas in Guizhou province. Furthermore, PHC sectors had difficulties retaining existing LHWs due to low incomes and fewer opportunities for self-development. In-depth interviews discovered that, although numerous training opportunities have been provided for LHWs since 2009, the trainings did not achieve the expected outcome in LHW competency building, as LHWs actually did not have access to the trainings and the training design was unresponsive to the actual needs of LHWs. Both LHWs and leaders expressed an urgent need for effective training for LHWs based on systematic needs assessments and the use of qualified trainers and materials. CONCLUSIONS: The shortage of qualified LHWs in PHC sectors became the bottleneck for BPHS delivery in Southwest China. Recent trainings for LHWs were less effective with regard to LHW competency building. A need-based professional training programme for LHWs by qualified trainers was expected by both LHWs and leaders in PHC sectors. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-019-4433-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-67081872019-08-28 Competency building for lay health workers is an intangible force driving basic public health services in Southwest China Liang, Shengxiang Deng, Haoyue Liu, Shili Wang, Geng Li, Li Wang, Mei Pu, Jie Xing, Wei Luo, Xingneng Ehiri, John Xiang, Yueying Li, Ying BMC Health Serv Res Research Article BACKGROUND: Providing universal basic public health services (BPHS) for residents is the main goal of the new health reform in China. Lay health workers (LHWs) in primary health care (PHC) sectors play key roles in BPHS delivery. The competency of LHWs is critical to quality BPHS. This study assessed LHWs’ competency to deliver BPHS and related training in resource-limited Southwest China. METHODS: A mixed research method combining in-depth interviews with secondary data collection was used to collect data in this cross-sectional study. Fifty-four LHWs and 16 leaders in 16 PHC sectors were recruited for in-depth interviews. Secondary data on 198 LHWs were collected through standard forms. RESULTS: Both the interviews and secondary data suggested that all PHC sectors did not have sufficient LHWs and lacked qualified LHWs to deliver BPHS overall, particularly in relatively low economic rural areas in Guizhou province. Furthermore, PHC sectors had difficulties retaining existing LHWs due to low incomes and fewer opportunities for self-development. In-depth interviews discovered that, although numerous training opportunities have been provided for LHWs since 2009, the trainings did not achieve the expected outcome in LHW competency building, as LHWs actually did not have access to the trainings and the training design was unresponsive to the actual needs of LHWs. Both LHWs and leaders expressed an urgent need for effective training for LHWs based on systematic needs assessments and the use of qualified trainers and materials. CONCLUSIONS: The shortage of qualified LHWs in PHC sectors became the bottleneck for BPHS delivery in Southwest China. Recent trainings for LHWs were less effective with regard to LHW competency building. A need-based professional training programme for LHWs by qualified trainers was expected by both LHWs and leaders in PHC sectors. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-019-4433-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2019-08-23 /pmc/articles/PMC6708187/ /pubmed/31443648 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4433-2 Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Liang, Shengxiang
Deng, Haoyue
Liu, Shili
Wang, Geng
Li, Li
Wang, Mei
Pu, Jie
Xing, Wei
Luo, Xingneng
Ehiri, John
Xiang, Yueying
Li, Ying
Competency building for lay health workers is an intangible force driving basic public health services in Southwest China
title Competency building for lay health workers is an intangible force driving basic public health services in Southwest China
title_full Competency building for lay health workers is an intangible force driving basic public health services in Southwest China
title_fullStr Competency building for lay health workers is an intangible force driving basic public health services in Southwest China
title_full_unstemmed Competency building for lay health workers is an intangible force driving basic public health services in Southwest China
title_short Competency building for lay health workers is an intangible force driving basic public health services in Southwest China
title_sort competency building for lay health workers is an intangible force driving basic public health services in southwest china
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6708187/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31443648
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4433-2
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